Kickbacks and Corruption Investigation
Investigation of corruption in the organization that Kerry wants to put our troops under continues, as does a congressional investigation of the companies involved in the Oil-for-Palaces program:The list of the foreign companies approved by Saddam, obtained exclusively by FOX News, spells out that Russian and Saudi Arabian companies were the big winners in the scheme, which was beset by bribes and kickbacks:There are no US or western European nations on the list, but it is early in the investigation. Plus, this looks rather suspicious:
- 109 Saudi Arabian companies are listed on a document titled Exempted Arab and Foreign Companies for importing all items. One Saudi company is described as a Mercedes-Benz dealership.
- 33 Russian companies are listed. One of those is further broken down into 250 company names, possibly subsidiaries.
Coleman said the committee is moving forward with the investigation in two ways: issuing subpoenas to the French bank who handled transactions and sending a series of chairmen's letters signed by Coleman and Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., asking the companies and Iraqis for information.And then there's this:
When asked if his efforts were being blocked by U.N. or U.S. officials, Coleman said he's "not prepared to say that" and that the "State Department has been helpful."It's not too difficult to read between the lines that while US officials are "helpful", UN officials are stonewalling. No wonder -- we'll probably never get the full list of top U.N. officials that were receiving kickbacks from the $67 billion program.
Blog post #3104 in category
United Nations
posted 9 July 04